Tony Awards 2023

►🏆 Much-needed win for Broadway 🏆 The 76th annual Tony Awards were handed out Sunday night. Kimberly Akimbo won best musical, Leopoldstadt was named best play, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog won best revival of a play, and Parade won best revival of a musical. In the lead acting categories, Jodie Comer won best performance by an actress in a play for Prima Facie, while openly nonbinary actor J. Harrison Ghee made history (along with Alex Newell) for winning best performance by an actor in a musical for Some Like It Hot. The winners. 

—Voters choose to lead rather than follow. THR's awards analyst Scott Feinberg dissects Sunday night's celebration of the 2022-23 Broadway season and looks at what the big wins for Kimberly Akimbo, Leopoldstadt and Parade mean. The analysis. 

—"Fierce and focused." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews the 76th Tony Awards. Dan writes that with a dance number instead of a monologue and a dozen great performances instead of floundering banter, the ceremony — hosted by a deft Ariana DeBose — was all about the work and the winners. The review. 

—Snubs, surprises and shutouts. Wendell Pierce, Jessica Chastain were among the biggest snubs at the Tonys, while single wins for Shucked and Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window were a surprise. Shows with multiple nominations that failed to win any awards included &Juliet, Into The Woods, A Doll's House and Ain't No Mo. The story. 

—Stepping out. Broadway’s biggest stars and brightest talents showed out on the red carpet before Sunday's ceremony. The likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban, Tatiana Maslany, Rachel Brosnahan, Lea Michele, Stephanie Hsu, Uzo Aduba, Ben Platt and Noah Galvin all dazzled with their outfits. The looks.  

—Not holding back. Broadway actress Denée Benton compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a Ku Klux Klan leader during the Tony Awards. Benton took the stage during the live broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ to present the Excellence in Theatre Education Award from Carnegie Mellon University. The story.

Wes Bentley Talks 'Yellowstone' End, Playing Jamie Dutton

►"I will miss it, but I will also celebrate it being over." THR's queen of chat Jackie Strause spoke to Yellowstone star Wes Bentley about playing Jamie Dutton, and why the character's sadness has been hard to shake throughout the five seasons of the Paramount Network neo-Western. As TV’s most popular show readies for its final episodes, Bentley explains why he is ready to say goodbye. The interview.

—Miles' demons. Sony Pictures Animation revealed a different side to Miles Morales, the hero of its blockbuster Spider-Verse franchise, in a short film The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, which got its world premiere Monday at the Annecy animation film festival on Monday. The short shows Miles/Spider-Man battling with mental health issues, as the teen web-slinger feels overwhelmed with school, upcoming exams and relationship drama. The story. 

—Another stellar addition. Tituss Burgess has joined the voice cast of Apple Original Film and Skydance Animation's Spellbound. Director Vicky Jenson will present a work-in-progress of the musical fairy tale on Tuesday at Annecy. The six-time Emmy nominee joins John Lithgow, Jennifer Lewis, Nathan Lane, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem in the voice cast. The story. 

—Next up. The creator of Arthur is creating another world of anthropomorphic animals for TV. Max has greenlit a preschool series called Hop from Marc Brown, whose many Arthur books were the source material for the beloved and long-running PBS series, and show veterans Peter K. Hirsch and Tolon Brown. The series order comes a year after Arthur concluded a 25-year run on PBS. The story.

'Never Have I Ever' Stars on "Satisfying" Ending

►"Really does make sense." THR's Hilary Lewis spoke to Never Have I Ever stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Darren Barnet and Jaren Lewison about the culmination of the acclaimed Netflix series after four seasons. The trio reflect on their onscreen journeys, including the college concerns they feel ring true and how surfing and soulmates play into their futures. Warning: Spoilers! The interview. 

—"What I love about the way Mike has written the show is that there are different ways to interpret how we’ll end up at the end of the series" THR's Beatrice Verhoeven spoke to The White Lotus stars Theo James and Will Sharpe on the HBO show’s themes of jealousy, rivalry and toxic masculinity. The two actors also talk about their characters’ suspicions of cheating and that final confrontation in the ocean. The interview.

—"We had no foreknowledge of, did not consent to and do not endorse or approve any footage or audio." On Saturday, Donald Trump posted a fundraising video that combined a monologue from Matt Damon’s character in the film Air. In a statement the same day, Artists Equity, the production company that produced Air and was co-founded by Damon and Ben Affleck, said that it did not approve of the use of the monologue. The story. 

—"These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures." Michael Shannon recently got candid about how it felt to return to his Man of Steel role of General Zod in upcoming movie The Flash. In a new interview, Shannon confessed that working on the superhero tentpole "wasn’t quite satisfying for me, as an actor." The story.

'Transformers 7' Opens to $60.5M

►Prime time. In a decisive win for Paramount and Skydance, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opened to a promising $60.5m at the domestic box office, more than enough to topple popular holdover Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and win the crowded summer weekend.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Rise of the Beasts — which successfully revives the Hasbro toy-to-movie franchise after several fits and starts — landed on the high end of expectations. While reviews have been mixed, the pic earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences and excellent PostTrak scores. The film also did sizeable business overseas, earning $110m for an early global total of $170.5m. 

Sony Animation’s box office sensation Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse fell 55 percent in its second frame to an estimated $55.4m for a 10-day domestic tally of $225.4m — which is already more than the $190.4m earned by Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse in its entire domestic run. Overseas, it earned another $47m for a foreign cume of $164.5m and $389.9m worldwide, also ahead of the first film.

And Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid jumped the $400m mark globally in its third outing. The box office report. 

—Old favorite. Chinese moviegoers’ abiding love for the Transformers franchise was on full display over the weekend as Rise of the Beasts opened to $40m, the second-biggest start for a Hollywood film in the country this year.  The film has earned solid social scores — 9.1 on Douban, 9.1 on Maoyan and 6.3 from Douban — setting it up for a respectable career run. Current projections in China see the film finishing with around $85m. The China box office report. 

Film Review: 'Rather'

►"Rather inspiring, if rather limited." THR's Dan Fienberg reviews Frank Marshall's Rather. Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film chronicles the rise and fall and rise again of iconic reporter and anchor Dan Rather. The review.

—"Earnest to a fault." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Bill Oliver's Our Son. Luke Evans and Billy Porter star in this drama that chronicles the traumatic breakup of a 13-year marriage and the bitter dispute over who gets to be primary parent to the couple’s 8-year-old child. The review. 

—"Intense and absorbing." David reviews Michael Shannon's Eric LaRue. Judy Greer, Alexander Skarsgard, Paul Sparks, Alison Pill and Tracy Letts star in Shannon's directorial debut about the collateral casualties of murder and the limits of faith as an all-purpose healer. The review.

—"Pretty f*cking good." THR's Frank Scheck reviews David Duchovny's Bucky F*cking Dent. The actor helms, scripts and acts in a screen adaptation of his 2016 novel about the reunion of an aspiring novelist and his dying dad. The review.

—"Fasten your seat belt." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Maria Fredriksson's The Gullspang Miracle. The filmmaker's debut feature documentary follows the twists and turns in a Norwegian family’s unexpected reconfiguration. The review.

In other news...

—Tokyo Film Festival names Wim Wenders jury president

—Santa Monica travel: 3 new and renovated hotels beckon by the beach

—TikTok chef Tue Nguyen launches her first restaurant in L.A.

What else we're reading...

—Max Tani has a monocle-popping scoop on WarnerMedia using CNN to lobby Andrew Cuomo to reopen theaters in New York in September 2021 (Semafor)

—Lucas Shaw looks at how Netflix is leaning into its "local for local" strategy, that is, making big hits for local markets [Bloomberg] 

—Shows like Netflix's Queen Charlotte have been praised for bringing diversity to historical dramas, but Steve Rose asks whether this trend can actually be dangerous [Guardian]

—Gregory Zuckerman scores the first major interview with Alex Soros who is taking over his family’s $25b philanthropic empire [WSJ]

—Incredible Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill report on the shocking deaths and crash toll of Tesla’s Autopilot feature [WaPo]

Today... 

...in 1981, America met Indiana Jones when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg brought Raiders of the Lost Ark to theaters. The original review.

Today's birthdays: Dave Franco (38), Georgina Campbell (31), Jason Mewes (49), Timothy Busfield (66), Timothy Simons (45), Rick Hoffman (53), Abbey Lee (36), Scott Thompson (64), Frances O'Connor (56), Paula Marshall (59), Cody Horn (35), Eamonn Walker (61), Tim DeKay (60), Spencer Macpherson (26), Kendra Wilkinson (38), Louisa Jacobson (32), Luke Youngblood (37), Gregory Alan Williams (67), Mel Rodriguez (50), Carly Craig (43), Valentina de Angelis (34), Ryan Malgarini (31), Marco D'Amore (42), Kieran Darcy-Smith (58), Kevin Lima (61), Jared Bush (49), Ritesh Batra (44), Meredith Brooks (65), Klaus Badelt (56), Abid Rahman (21🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿)